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DRAWING OBJECTS

Drawing is done by selecting a predefined image from the Draw Menu. If you just want to draw in your selected colour with your mouse you just select Mouse Draw option in the Draw menu, but that will give you almost no accuracy just like scribbling on a piece of paper.

CADGen provides you with predetermined object tools for your use obtainable from the Draw menu.

The most basic selectable object is the Point object. This will plot just one point and will shown as colouring just one pixel every time the mouse left button is clicked over the point required. Although convenient to mark a logical position on the diagram it can hardly been seen and is not very efficient to draw only in this mode. Fortunately there are more selectable objects in the Draw menu for you to use such as Line, Othno Line, Circle, Arc, Polygon and Box. At this point I should stress when registering a point on any object the registration is actually completed when you remove your figure from the left mouse button so you may make fine adjustments to the position while your figure remains on the left button.

The Line feature works by making 2 mouse left button clicks on two positions on your diagram. The 1st click of your mouse will register the position of the beginning of the line you will be drawing; As you move your mouse away from the registered beginning point an adjusting rubber band will appear indicating what your line will be like if you make your concluding left click at that position. When you find the position when you want your line you make your 2nd left mouse click and the straight line will be drawn permanently in the colour you are currently working in.

After an operation is completed the Draw object remains selected and you can repeat the operation, in this case drawing another line in another position. At any time in the drawing process if you rather state a point by an actual co-ordinate or relative to a previous point you can use features obtained from clicking an option from a menu obtained by pressing your right mouse button. If you, for example select Specify point, this will provide you with a box containing your current X,Y position in the units you are using you will have the opportunity to define the point as either an actual co-ordinate position or as relative to the last position by checking the relative position box corresponding to each of the X, Y or both as required.

If you wish to draw a straight line exactly vertically or horizontally there is a special line draw feature known as Othno Line. The Othno Line feature works similar to the ordinary line draw feature except that the line will be drawn to the nearest vertical or horizontal position. this is determined by whether the line graduate is less or more than 45 degrees to the first point.

The Box feature is also a 2 left mouse button click positioning operation but this time after initiating the 1st left mouse button click the rubber banding will indicate that this operation is a rectangle drawing feature which in fact is what it is. The 2nd final mouse click will determine the rectangle to be drawn.

The circle feature is also a 2 left mouse button operation but this time the first position registered is the centre of the circle and the 2nd is the circumference; For the 2nd point in the floating right button menu you will have an addition feature for radius specification which you may use. Similarly, between 1st and 2nd points the rubber banding effect will show that it is a circle you will be drawing.

This is a Polygon drawing feature which is slightly different as when you select this feature a box will appear asking you to specify the number of sides you require. Once you have specified this then the only way you can change the number of sides will be to select the Reg. Poly option again just as if it was another object. The points you will specify are similar to the circle operation: The 1st position indicating the centre of the polygon; As you move to the 2nd position the rubber banding effect will show a circle being drawn but this indicates the containing circle enclosing your polygon. This is because we assumed that a practical application will be drawing a nut for a bolt.

This is a feature which will draw a ellipse contained within a rectangle. The 2 positions you will registering is at the two opposite corners of the containing rectangle.

The Arc drawing feature is a 3 mouse positioning operation to draw part of the circumference of a circle. Thus the starting 1st point will register the centre of the full circle, the rubber banding in this case is show the radius position only. The 2nd point to indicate the starting point of the actual arc. The 3rd point clicked will be on the radius line indicating the ending position of the arc.
The arc will be drawn in a clockwise direction from the 2nd to 3rd points.
If you take a close look at the options in the floating menu given by the right mouse button you will see you could express 2nd or 3rd points by polar co-ordinates, this can be useful in the Arc drawing operation.

What are the features obtainable by clicking the Right mouse button ?

These depend on where you are in the system, but when drawing these will be positioning relevant operations or modifiers. As mentioned there is the Specified point option which allows you to type in the co-ordinates expressing either actual or relative position points. There is also the Polar co-ordinates feature which allows you to express a relative position as a polar co-ordinate, that is by an angle in degrees and a magnitude. The Last Point feature will give register this point as the last point used in a previous operation. You may think that last point is irrelevant but when you think about it you could draw a open polygon by use of the Line draw feature and taking the next line from the end of the previous line. There is the Specify Radius option which is only available for circles etc.

The following operations are really modifiers which allow the following mouse point left button click to be interpreted in an alternative way.

• The End Point modifier will allow the mouse to be clicked on another line type object close to the end intended and CADGen will actually find that end to give you an exact end positioning.
• The Mid Point modifier will allow the mouse to be clicked on an object for CADGen to find the midway position. For a line the midpoint found will be half way from each end.
• The % Along modifier is slightly more complex feature in which the following mouse click is not only placed on the object to be referenced but near the end of which you will be measuring from. When the % along modifier has been selected a box will appear asking for you to define the percentage value you require from 0 to 100% before you actually move onto indicating the near position on the object. CADGen will calculate that position along the object indicated.
• The Centre modifier is another object based feature. In this case the point calculated will be the central point of the object. For a circle this will be the centre. For a line it will be equivalent to Mid Point or 50% along. For any other it will be the centre of balance or mean.
• The Intersect modifier is a 2 object indication based modifier. If you wish to indicate a point at the intersection of 2 other lines you can do this easily by selecting this option in the menu and then clicking once on each of the two lines which intersect at the point you want to register.
• The Tangent modifier is only available to complete your line draw function, that is for the line ending point (2nd point) registration. After selecting the Tangent option you may then only register a mouse click on a circle or arc. For a circle that is near the point of where the tangent intersection is to be made.
• The Perpendicular modifier is another 2nd point registration modifier. This feature is used to complete your line draw function to another line to ensure the intersection will be at right angles (90 degrees). When determining the end point of the line you are drawing you need only select this option in the right mouse menu then click on the line object to find the position on the line where a right angle will be possible. CADGen will do the rest for you.
• The On Object modifier is a similar line completion feature but this modifier will ensure that the line you are drawing will actually make an intersection with the object at the point you indicate. Although this modifier will not actually modify the position of where you end the drawing of your line it will only register this position if it also resides on an existing object or image thus ensuring connection.

The Reference Point modifier is a feature that works with a combination of pointing and specifying. When you select the reference point option you may then register a reference position anywhere on your diagram; As soon as you have registered a mouse click on this position a specify point will appear with the co-ordinates of the point you have selected, you can then change this to suit your requirements to obtain the position as referenced from this point, normally you would want this to be a relative point, if so ensure that the appropriate relative boxes are checked.
When indicating the reference point you may even use another modifier from the right button menu embedded into the operation to obtain this point such as centre or intersection. This is the power of CADGen.

There are 2 other useful modifiers available when you draw lines in Othno Line draw mode: Usually when defining the completing end point where the mouse is clicked relative to a 45 degree plain determines whether it is a vertical or horizontal line. This is not always convenient particularly when you want to line the end with a reference point which may be on the wrong side of the 45 degree plain. Fortunately, CADGen allows you to override this feature. Same X modifier will force your completion of the line to have the same X value and if different from the 1st position will force your othno line to be a horizontal image. There is also a corresponding Same Y feature that will force adoption of the Y axis value.

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